In the Darkness of the Night
by Technically Correct
Summary: Courtney just can't get to sleep...


**Courtney's POV**

* * *

**3:23 AM **was what my PDA displayed. How I managed to stay up this late was beyond me. Oh right. _It was all because of a certain delinquent. _What? Of course not. I refused to think about him, and instead, looked around the room at everyone's sleeping forms. Lindsay was thrashing about in her sleep, maybe being tormented by her lack of intellect. I almost snorted.

Heather looked peaceful for once. Who knew that was possible? Beth was, for once, not making any sort of strangled snore-like noises. She was often the source of the sleeping problems in this cabin, but not tonight. I couldn't even blame her for me being up at this hour.

**3:24 AM**. Could time pass by any slower? I turned both myself and my pillow over. There was some refreshing coldness, until my body heat proceeded to heat up the pillow and the place where I was lying. If only this place was just a bit colder.

**3:25 AM**. Why couldn't I just fall asleep? I never had many difficulties falling asleep before, tonight should be no exception. After all, Chris was probably going to blow that infernal megaphone and wake us up in a couple hours. I can't be on my A game if I get no sleep.

**3:26 AM**. Only three minutes has gone by? It seems more like three _hours_ has gone by. I flipped my pillow over and turned to face everyone again. Leshawna was sleeping like a log. She made no movements, or even breathing sounds, as far as I could hear. She scared me sometimes. She had attitude and a loud mouth, which I also had, but I don't know honestly. She was from the ghetto, a place to which I had gone once and nearly died. She just had that kind of air to her that made you want to stay away, I suppose. I guess that didn't intimidate Harold though.

**3:27 AM**. Why is time passing by soooo slowly? I wish that someone would come and save me from the insomnia that I'm suffering from. I still can't believe that I stayed up this late. All I've been doing for the past three hours is glancing at my PDA and back.

I tried to shut my eyes, but it hurt for some odd reason. I'm just so tired that I'm not tired, as quoted from Gwen in that big sleep fiasco. I need to sleep, but I literally can't.

**3:28 AM**. Oh dear, time is just passing by so slowly. How am I going to survive tomorrow's challenge? I rubbed my eyes and glared at the inky darkness that surrounded me. _Why won't you let me sleep? _I asked myself internally. I tiptoed over to Heather's mirror and peered into it. My eyelids looked like they were being pried open, but I couldn't feel a single thing. I set it down and crawled back into bed.

**3:29 AM**. How nice. I'm destined to lose tomorrow, I know it. I'll pass out in the middle of doing something. I can predict it. I was about to flip my pillow over for what felt like the millionth time until I heard a slight shuffle, and out of the corner of my eye, I could see a paper being slipped under the door into our cabin. Normally, I would've been scared, and would've grabbed Lindsay's hairbrush or something as a weapon, but not tonight. I quietly walked over to the note and picked it up.

_I know you're awake. Let's go._

_- Duncan._

That was slightly creepy. How would he know I was awake? For some reason, I didn't mind, and looked out the window. Duncan was standing there, looking tired. Who wouldn't be tired at this hour? I opened the door, trying to make sure that it didn't squeak due to the rusty hinges that Chris had YET to oil.

All Duncan did was grab my hand, and started to lead us somewhere. I would have never let him get away with this in the daytime, but nobody was around to see us and tease us, right? I grabbed my PDA from my pocket. **3:30 AM**. Great.

* * *

"Where are we going?" I asked him in my usual tone of bossiness.

"To the beach."

"Why?"

"Don't chicks like sunrises and cheesy crap like that?" Duncan replied. I scoffed.

**3:48 AM**. According to the last time I researched this place, the sun didn't come up until at least 4:30-5 AM. What exactly was he planning to do while waiting?

He led me to the elimination place and sat down. "So let's talk Princess."

I scoffed again, and he smiled, as if he were amused by that. Or he could just be delighted about my extreme lack of proper clothing, but I was leaning slightly more towards the first option, given his personality. He leaned in towards me, and I tried to shrug away.

"You can stop pretending now." Duncan said with a smirk. I was taken aback for a moment, how the hell did he know that I...maybe liked him? However, I changed my surprised expression to a look of apathy.

"What do you mean 'pretending'? I hate you," I grinned at him. He returned the grin and decided to point out that I had slept with him in one challenge.

"I don't remember-" I was abruptly cut off by a pair of lips smashing into my own. My eyes widened as his closed, and I could feel his disgusting, pierced tongue asking for entry into my mouth. My mind told me to pull away and slap him, but my body said to allow him in and close my eyes. Stupid body.

He was the one to pull away first, with a look of mischevious happiness clearly visible in his teal eyes. "Well Princess."

"What the hell were you thinking when you-" I started screaming at him, my senses _finally_ kicking him, but he shushed me with a clichéd finger-to-my-lip movement. He only grinned as I rolled my eyes and checked my PDA again. **4:00 AM**.

"Great, what are you planning to do now?" I asked, adding in sarcastic undertones to my voice, similar to Noah.

"I don't know. What's your favorite color?" Duncan asked. At least he was attempting to make small talk. **4:05 AM**. Goodness, time was just so slow today, wasn't it?

"Purple." I answered simply. I stared off into the inky darkness that was supposedly the 'sky.' There wasn't a single star in sight. In fact, I could barely even make out the moon's distant form, obscured by black-gray clouds.

"Oh, so like royalty, since you're a CIT princess." Duncan smirked. I sensed that he was adding in some humor, like he usually did. For some kind of bad boy juvie _thing_, you'd think he'd be more bada** than 'Hey what's your favorite color?' Not that I didn't like it though. I wouldn't want to date a complete a**hole after all.

"Okay...what's your favorite color?" I asked. I face-palmed shortly afterwards. I wasn't supposed to be talking to him at four in the morning, I was supposed to be asleep, ready to win the challenge tomorrow!

"Green, if you couldn't tell by my hair," Duncan said and gestured to his brightly colored mohawk. Even through the darkness of tonight, I could still see his hair, it was that bright.

**4:13 AM**. Just great. I was now wide-awake at this point, any drowsiness that I had kept in the cabin was gone now. I think that the reason I'm so awake now is because of the cold air tonight. Especially because I was in basically a bra and underwear. Duncan was already dressed in his normal attire.

"Check your phone Princess, what time is it?" Duncan asked.

"It's a PDA." I corrected indignantly, and pulled it out of my back pocket. **4:15 AM**.

"PDA, phone, whatever." Duncan waved his hand, signifying that he was brushing it off. What an ignorant, attractive little prick...wait a minute, what?

"Would'ja look at that." Duncan smirked, looking in front of him. I followed his gaze and...it was beautiful. The blackness of the night was slowly being cast away by the rising colors of yellow and light purple. I sighed in awe. A sunrise was such a cheesy thing, but I loved it.

And of course, to add to the cheesiness factor, Duncan captured my lips in yet another kiss. What a perfectly cliché moment...

I loved every second of it.

That was, until later. Still though, something inside of me told me that I wasn't going to be pushing him away tomorrow.


End file.
